A look at the man who will headline “Jumah at the Democratic National Convention.”

In just a few days, the Democratic National Convention “Kick off events”week will include its first ever “Jumah (gathering) at the DNC” - three Islam-centered events beginning with a Friday prayer and sermon, an evening Islamic banquet and an all day Islamic festival.

Many of the individuals scheduled to speak during the DNC week have extremely spurious backgrounds, including support for Al Qaeda and the U.S. State Department designated terrorist organization, HAMAS. Brooklyn-based Imam Siraj Wahhaj will headline the Muslim portion of the convention.

This is part two of an in-depth study of a man who will have the ear of thousands planning to attend the DNC Convention, thanks to Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ DNC. [To see Part I, click here]

Wahhaj Supports Islamic Extremism in Sudan

Hassan Al-Turabi was the leader of the National Islamic Front (NIF) political party in Sudan In the 1980’s. [i] It was then that shari’ah law was implemented nationwide to Muslim and non-Muslim people alike. The criminal code was changed to include such barbaric punishments as cross amputation (cutting off the left hand and right foot), stoning, flogging, and death sentences for apostasy and blasphemy. The prominent Islam reformer, Mahmoud Mohammed Taha (“Taha”) was executed in 1981 for apostasy. [ii] Siraj Wahhaj supports Al-Turabi’s draconian shari’ah as it was enforced. In one sermon at his mosque, Wahhaj proclaimed “I would cut off the hands of my own daughter (if she stole) because Allah stands for Justice.” [iii]

Sudan became a safe-haven for terrorists i.e. Osama Bin Laden and HAMAS, under Al- Turabi, And in 1993, after the World Trade Center bombing, Sudan was named by the U.S. State Department as a state sponsor of terror. [iv]

Siraj Wahhaj made these statements at the time Sudan was listed as a state sponsor of terror:

May Allah bless Sudan…these are people who want to establish the Shari’ah, establish Quran, and Sunnah, they want to establish the religion and therefore hated by the government of the U.S.A…I’m not going to make you comfortable because our book, the book we believe in, is not Dale Carnegie’s, How to Win Friends and Influence People; But it’s the Quran.

Wahhaj Joins ISNA in Support for HAMAS and the National Islamic Front (NIF)

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) calls itself the largest Islamic organization in the U.S.. The leaders of two terror groups Sami Al-Arian - Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Mousa Abu Marzook- HAMAS “helped establish” ISNA in 1981.[v]

Wahhaj became a member of the ISNA Advisory Council in 1987. 10 years later, HAMAS leader, Mousa Abu Marzook who had been deported from Jordan for his terror related activities[vi], wrote a thank you to many organizations in The Washington Report Middle East Affairs (WRMEA) for their support of him.. One of the organizations he thanked was ISNA. It was at that time, Wahhaj was ISNA Vice President, having been named to that position the same year, in 1997. [vii]

In the Spring 2001 edition of the ISNA publication, Islamic Horizons, the Sudanese leader Hassan Al Turabi, of the NIF, stated: "I do not think that it is only a dream, but there is a possibility not only for America to be Islamized, but also in fact to develop as the role model of Islam." [viii] This ISNA article was published while Sudan was listed as a state sponsor of terror.

Not only were Marzook and Al-Arian co-founders of ISNA, they were also co-founders of an Islamist organization, which evolved into the Council for American- Islamic Relations (CAIR). Marzook and Al-Arian co-founded the precursor to the Council for American Islamic Relations, a U.S. front group for HAMAS.[x]

Article Eight of the 1988 HAMAS Charter proclaims:

“Allah is its goal; the Prophet is its model, the Quran its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.”

Omar Ahmed, who co-founded the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), was caught just a few years after CAIR’s incorporation publicly stating similar goals:

Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Quran . . . should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth. [xi]

Siraj Wahhaj has been on CAIR’s Advisory Board, [xii] and for over the last decade has been the designated fundraiser at many CAIR fundraiser banquets. Wahhaj has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for CAIR. [xiii] At a recent CAIR San Francisco fundraiser, where Siraj Wahhaj was listed as fundraiser, CAIR’s guest speakers included the attorney for Sami Al-Arian, Linda Moreno.[xiv]

Wahhaj and the North American Islamic Trust

One subsidiary of ISNA is the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT). NAIT was the first U.S. Islamic financial trust. [xv]

ISNA and NAIT are included in "A list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends" of the Muslim Brotherhood in a 1991 memorandum[xvi] written by Mohamed Akram, a top HAMAS Operative living in the United States at that time. The document is dated May 22, 1991. Siraj Wahhaj’s own bio says he was on NAIT’s Board of Advisors from 1989-1993, which puts his service with NAIT and ISNA squarely during the same period this document was written. This Muslim Brotherhood memorandum reads much like Wahhaj’s sermons and lectures:

The Ikhwan [Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions. [xvii]

Siraj Wahhaj Supports Convicted Cop Killer, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin

Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown), an African-American convert to Islam, is a former Black Panther with a forty year history of violence who’s been listed twice on the FBI's “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list. [xviii] Al-Amin once said, "I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie."[xix] Al-Amin was arrested for murdering one deputy sheriff and injuring another in 2000. The shooting was not racially motivated as both deputies were Black. Al-Amin murdered the Deputy Sheriff In cold blood– walking over to the already injured deputy and shot the man three more times. [xx]

Siraj Wahhaj founded Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA) in 2001 to defend Al-Amin. [xxi] On MANA’s website, Al Amin is listed as an Islamic scholar. The site even publishes an article by Al Amin directed to Muslim clerics, titled, “Advice for Imams.” In 2004, the Georgia court denied Al-Amin’s appeal, “Al-Amin's guilt was overwhelmingly established through the eyewitness identification by [the] Deputies, as well … as by the vast amount of physical evidence tying defendant to the crimes.” [xxii]

Al-Amin was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The DNC is celebrating a man who supported a cop-killer!

Siraj Wahhaj’s Support for Hizb ut-Tahrir

The Hizb ut-Tahrir international movement which campaigns for the establishment of a global Islamic state, or Caliphate (Khalifah) governed by Islamic (shari’ah) law. Although, legally permitted inside the United States, Hizb ut-Tahrir has been described as a "conveyor belt" of terror. [xxiii] Hizb ut-Tahrir former members include Al- Qaeda architect of 9/11 , Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and the former leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. On a Hizb ut-Tahrir draft Islamic constitution, it advocated for separate and distinct laws for non-Muslims based on Islamic doctrine, death for apostasy, and waging jihad as a top priority for the government. [xxiv]

Siraj Wahhaj has been a long time supporter of Hizb ut-Tahrir. In 1994, he attended a conference in London. During the conference, the Islamists called for jihad, attacked democracy as a system of government, and declared that “the Islamic system is the only alternative for mankind.” [xxv] Less than a week later, back in the U.S., Wahhaj celebrated the Hizb ut-Tahrir as "scholarly brothers, knowledgeable brothers in the din" (understanding that Islam is not just a religion, but a complete way of life) with "good insight." Wahhaj specifically stated that the group "is right in their pushing for the Khilafah (Caliphate)." [xxvi]

Conclusion

Given the massive documentation, going back decades, of his support for radicalism, violence, cop-killing, the worst Islamic extremism, and the overthrow of the Constitution, as well as his use of positions of leadership to pursue these goals, it is time to demand an explanation from the DNC about their embrace of Siraj Wahhaj.

Laura Rubenfeld worked for six years as a Terrorism Analyst for Steven Emerson at The Investigative Project on Terrorism. Her articles have been published on sites including Family Security Matters, PJ Media, Big Government and Big Peace. Laura speaks regularly on this and other related subjects.